a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the control of automated real-time processes, for example laboratory or manufacturing processes, by a computer or microprocessor.
b) Description of Related Art
Automation of, particularly prototype, laboratory or manufacturing processes needs to be as flexible as possible. At the same time, programs for controlling such processes need to be able to be developed quickly, whilst remaining easily modifiable. However, many researchers or process developers do not have the skills necessary to write control programs themselves, so there can be significant delays in developing suitable control programs since it is often necessary to explain the requirements to a programmer who then has to implement the required control strategy in a given programming language.
However, researchers and engineers are generally familiar with so-called timing diagrams or the like in which a representation of the control process is provided by plural graphs, each representing a given control signal or the like, displayed one above the other with the abscissa representing the elapsed time from the start of the process. Real-time process controls are often developed from diagrams of this sort, by the preparation (by a computer programmer) of a computer program implementation of a timing diagram prepared by the system developer, but the need to involve a programmer inevitably slows down the development. Furthermore, modifications that frequently need to be made during development will usually require further input from the programmer.